France - Money

Notes are in denominations of €500, 200, 100, 50, 20, 10 and 5. Banknotes of 500, 200 are rarely seen and most shops would be wary of accepting them, and even 100 euro banknote is not that common but in use.Coins are in denominations of €2 and 1, and 50, 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1 cents.

Businesses are prohibited from accepting foreign currency by law, but some currency exchange offices are present within some first-class hotels which are authorised to exchange foreign currency.

In general there are exchange booths in the centres of towns or money could be exchanged at banks. Banking hours change from one place to another and from one bank to another. As a general guideline: Mon-Sat 9 am till 12/13 pm and 2 pm to 5 pm. Some banks are closed on Mondays and some are open on Saturdays. Banks stay open only half a day (till 12 o'clock) on the day before a bank holiday and may also close for all or part of the day after, but it is less likely.

Credit cards (called carte bleu in French) like American Express, Diners Club, MasterCard and Visa are widely accepted and so are Traveller's cheques.

French credit cards all have a chip and payment is accepted after inputting a secret code for validation of the payment request, rarely is a signature on the payment receipt required when using this type of card.